KAVARI Low Arts Club
How long have you been making music?
I started making music at the age of 17, I started on the demo version of FL Studio and moved to Ableton after my 18th birthday as I received it as a gift.
What do you feel are your musical influences? And do you find yourself revisiting music from your past?
Escapism, that's the root of all my work. I love crafting songs like they're their own little worlds, almost like "what kind of music would be playing in a scenario like this? what emotional context would it have? where would it take place?" all world building elements I feel I take from playing video games like Skyrim, Fable 2, and Fallout 3 obsessively as a child. Music is almost meditative for me, I like to just zone out and work going mostly by ear. Sonically I would say I take a lot of inspiration from artists such as Réelle, Lorn, Beach House, Arca, Citytronix, SOPHIE, & Crystal Castles to name a few. Also a lot of 2000's pop and electronica. The late Réelle specifically is a very big inspiration to me, their work has sat with me for years and the messages interwoven in their sounds like the relationship of pleasure and pain, the goddess Lilith, sexuality, and gender expression are so beautiful in such a unique way. I associate music really heavily with past events or periods of time in my life, like give me any song I know and I could tell you exactly when & where I first listened to it, a person it reminds me of, a specific experience I've had with that song, or even just a fact about it. So listening back to music from my past can be really cathartic sometimes to relive some old emotions, although sometimes a bit painful, so I try to limit it slightly.
What music are you listening to atm?
The music I have on repeat right now is Yves Tumor's new single Jackie, pretty much all of Ethel Cain's discography, Smerz' Believer album, and I've been listening to a lot of old Imogen Heap and MGMT recently too. I also listen to my friends work a lot, as I'm lucky to be friends with artists I see as inspirations and who always produce such gorgeous work. Myen, Klahrk, sv1, TAAHLIAH, ELFZ, sysadmin, Jack Slade, xato, Ivy Hollivana, the list really is huge.
How is the music scene where you live?
It's thriving, as long as you know where to look. I feel like the Scottish music scene, especially when it comes to anything electronic, is heavily dominated by straight white cis techo boys. I enjoy techno a lot, but growing up the events I went to were always guys behind the decks playing the same 'bum tss bum tss' stuff for hours on end. For a while I was getting scared that's all there was, it wasn't until I went deeper into places like Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, where I found more variety in music, raves, parties, artists, and events. Especially the LGBTQ+ scene. I was even part of a trio who organised and performed at local raves since we wanted somewhere with a more inclusive crowd and better music. The LGBTQ+ music scene in Scotland I feel is about to have a surge after the pandemic ends, as I think people are starting to realise inclusivity, self expression, and variety is more important to night life and the music scene than exclusivity, marketed aesthetics, and getting the same headliners to play the same stuff to the same crowd for the 52nd weekend in a row. Plus we just know how to party better.
Has the the lockdown changed your creative practice when approaching music making?
Oh definitely, It's been weird to say the least. I've had a lot more time to work on things as I've been confined to my bedroom for the most of it. It's given me a lot of alone time which I feel has fed my desire for escapism even more. I've been creating near constantly since lockdown started in the U.K. back in March of 2020 and the only thing that's been keeping me sane is creating these small soundtracks to imaginary settings. I also feel like I put more of myself into my work, like I never used to sample but I started doing it during lockdown as a way to reference things like my favourite movies, TV shows, and video games, and I feel like it's added more fun to the way I create since I've learned over lockdown that I much prefer working with audio clips rather than MIDI.
Your production often blends ethereal textures with more abrasive ones, can you talk about what motivates that?
I feel like one of the issues I have is that I can never seem to find stable middle ground internally, my emotions are usually always at extremes whether that's positive or negative and I feel like that reflects heavily in my work, although not intentional. I also love the idea of jarring noises being used in an emotional setting, like people hear a harsh texture and usually assume it's unlistenable or meant to be aggressive, but an abrasive distorted texture is just as emotionally charged and intricate as the most delicate instrumentation to me. I've never understood why people can't see them in the same context. Merzbow brings up just as much raw emotion as a Brain Eno song I would say. You could probably find some trans allegory in my work about "my inner self vs outer self" but that's not what I'm trying to do. I love textures, feelings, sensations, my sound design is just me messing around until it hits sweet spots in my brain, I try to not overthink it.
What are your ambitions, with music and in life generally?
I want to do a lot in all mediums. Movie soundtracks, video game soundtracks, immersive art exhibits, visual art, fashion design, jewellery design, event organisation, everything and anything I can. Also would love to meet Skrillex at some point during it all, he's who kick started my interest in electronic music when I was like 11 years old. I'd say the end goal for me though is a cabin in the woods far away somewhere with my laptop to just create music as much as I like. I'm quite easily pleased. If I can just make music I feel proud of and reflects me very honestly, that's all I could really ever want. My creativity is quite selfish in the sense I just want to make things that I like and to recreate specific emotions that I've felt or what I imagine some I haven't felt to feel like, that's my drive and I think most of my goals are based off of fulfilling that.
Is there anything coming up we should know about?
There's so much, a lot I can't speak about yet but I'm dying to. Although I can say I have a lot of live shows coming up in the U.K. later this year, my first of which being August 14th at King Tut's Summer Nights Festival in Glasgow. Klahrk & I have an EP that's coming, numerous collaborations, another mixtape potentially if that doesn't become something larger, a few singles on compilations, I feel like I'm only just getting started.
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